M. Constantin Heger lived to be
eighty-seven years of age, dying at 72 Rue Nettoyer, Brussels, on the 6th
of May 1896. He was born in Brussels in 1809, took part in the Belgian
revolution of 1830, and fought in the war of independence against the
Dutch. He was twice married, and it was his second wife who was
associated with Charlotte Bronte. She started the school in the Rue
d'Isabelle, and M. Heger took charge of the upper French classes. In an
obituary article written by M. Colin of _L'Etoile Belge_ in _The Sketch_
(June 5, 1896), which was revised by Dr. Heger, the only son of M. Heger,
it is stated that Charlotte Bronte was piqued at being refused permission
to return to the Pensionnat a third time, and that _Villette_ was her
revenge. We know that this was not the case. The Pensionnat Heger was
removed in 1894 to the Avenue Louise. The building in the Rue d'Isabelle
will shortly be pulled down.

{121} _Pictures of the Past_, by Francis H. Grundy, C.E: Griffith &
Farran, 1879; _Emily Bronte_, by A. Mary F. Robinson: W. H. Allen, 1883;
_The Bronte Family_, _with Special Reference to Patrick Branwell Bronte_,
by Francis A. Leyland: Hurst & Blackett, 2 vols. 1886.

{123} After Mr. Bronte's death Mr. Nicholls removed it to Ireland.
Being of opinion that the only accurate portrait was that of Emily, he
cut this out and destroyed the remainder. The portrait of Emily was
given to Martha Brown, the servant, on one of her visits to Mr. Nicholls,
and I have not been able to trace it. There are three or four so-called
portraits of Emily in existence, but they are all repudiated by Mr.
Nicholls as absolutely unlike her. The supposed portrait which appeared
in _The Woman at Home_ for July 1894 is now known to have been merely an
illustration from a 'Book of Beauty,' and entirely spurious.

{138} There are two portraits of Branwell in existence, both of them in
the possession of Mr. Nicholls. One of them is a medallion by his friend
Leyland, the other the silhouette which accompanies this chapter. They
both suggest, mainly on account of the clothing, a man of more mature
years than Branwell actually attained to.

{142} In the _Mirror_, 1872, Mr. Phillips, under the pseudonym of
'January Searle,' wrote a readable biography of Wordsworth.

{145a} Charlotte writes from Dewsbury Moor (October 2, 1836):--'My
sister Emily is gone into a situation as teacher in a large school of
near forty pupils, near Halifax.